Stendhal's top 3 books

Trying to write an authentic realistic novel involves a high degree of complication, probably more than any other type of genre in which the plot serves to sustain and fill the entire story. Realism is naked literature and Stendhal (pseudonym of Marie henri beyle that finally devoured the author) was the pioneer of a current that relied on the magic of the characters.

A magic that is attunement in their dialogues, in their descriptions and thoughts to compose stories capable of marveling from the simplicity in their emotional harmony. Sublime empathy of characters characterized and outlined inside and out, beyond the story to tell turned into a simple setting, an excuse of less weight than the story of the life, thoughts and emotions of each of the protagonists.

But best of all, when you write a great realist novel Stendhal style the narration advances at the best pace, which is imprinted by the evolution of the character in the face of his circumstances and his way of internalizing reality.

After Stendhal, the idea of ​​magical realism would be coined as the version in which the strange, the imaginative was integrated, where even the abnormality of human thought and behavior was included. And yet, that same strangeness, that contradiction, every subjective perspective and every delusion was always incorporated in what Stendhal wrote.

In the end, it can be said that reading Stendhal in our days acquires greater utility for the cultivation of critical thinking, to enjoy the mere fact of thinking about you, instead of being thought about. If, in addition, the background of a plot is taken where social criticism and the story of a time as alienating as the French Restoration were, there is no doubt that reading becomes that luxury leisure that literature can be.

Stendhal's Top 3 Recommended Books

Red and black

The customs establish the customs, but people always move between these customs with the desire to break them in part, to impose themselves on the common, more if possible in the case of any historically disadvantaged class.

The protagonist of this novel is Julián Sorel, one of the most brilliant protagonists of world literature, a commoner who enjoys reading when he can and who aspires to achieve a more just society, just at the moment when the Restoration hits any alternative thought form.

The opportunity to begin to chart her path, away from the suffocating feeling of repudiation that she aroused among other social classes, comes when Monsieur de Rènal discovers her humanistic qualities and offers her to work at home, with the children.

In his performance, Julián Sorel makes contact with people who are very different from his original social stratum, and is confident that he can thrive, and enjoys bright moments of youth that lead him to love, to a more comfortable life ... but everything darkens from Suddenly, violent death break into your reality to break your dreams.

A real case that in Stendhal's hands serves to develop a parallel judgment about the circumstances, about the character who suddenly acquires an unsuspected role.

Red and black

The Cartuja of Parma

Fabricio del Dongo, the protagonist of this novel, projects his life towards a prestigious future. Everything that happens finally passes through the theatricality of a life given at times to tragedy or comedy.

It is undoubtedly Stendhal's most heterogeneous novel. At times it seems that we read a realistic novel with historical intent, but suddenly we turn towards romanticism, chronicle and social criticism and the vital adventure that Fabricio has to undertake to carry out a life that, in the end, seems marked by misfortune.

The subjective perspective of love that Fabricio transmits to us, but that we also appreciate in characters like Gina or Cleni Conti, ends up moving the novel along fascinating paths that address the ideas of untimely love, impossible love, heartbreak, spite and what moves the human soul once delivered to love or hate.

The Charterhouse of Parma

Italian Chronicles

Stendhal admired that noisy way of life in the most popular Italy, for the bustle and passion, for the theatricality and the tone of a people devoted to life like an eternal Venice carnival. These Italian chronicles demonstrate that admiration and interest in everything Italian.

In the old documents that served as the foundation of this book, Stendhal made the most of the ravishing humanity of those stories from the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries, in the midst of the Renaissance.

Loves and betrayals that end up being paid for in blood, honor as a good that can be quickly requested in replacement, through life or death.

5/5 - (8 votes)

5 comments on "The 3 best books by Stendhal"

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.